Friday's Architecture Moment: The Farnsworth House

The Wall Street Journal has a breezy and informative piece on Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House:

See-through on all four sides and elevated more than five feet above a flood plain, the minimalist icon is part fishbowl, part tree house and part transparent time capsule. Sixty years after architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe completed the famed glass getaway on the banks of the Fox River in Plano, Ill., the structure remains shockingly ahead of its time.    . . .  The 3,300-square-foot structure is relatively small by Mies's standards, and once inside, a guest is transfixed by the juxtaposition between the home's rigid lines and the exterior's wilds. Set in nature like a levitating houseboat, the exposed weekend retreat exudes both grace and vulnerability.

Steve Clowney